Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Week 4 - A surprise at my doorstep

This morning when we opened the door of our home, we found this beautiful pookalam staring back at us... "A smiling Sun!" exclaimed the son excitedly. The daughter wanted to know who was kind enough to bring us such joy...and "who" in their right minds would stealthily make one while we were asleep...

I think I know who it is and all I can say is "Thank you for giving us this moment of happiness, my friend and soul mate. You've enriched the spirit of the Joy of Giving...."

Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Week 4 - Blessing. A poem by Imtiaz Dharkar

My friend Meena Nambiar shared this stark poem with us:

The skin cracks like a pod.There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,

the small splash, 

echo in a tin mug,

the voice of a kindly god.

Sometimes, the sudden rush

of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,

silver crashes to the ground

and the flow has found

a roar of tongues. From the huts,a congregation: 

every man woman

child for streets around

butts in, with pots,

brass, copper, aluminium,

plastic buckets,

frantic hands,

and naked children

screaming in the liquid sun,

their highlights polished to perfection,

flashing light,

as the blessing sings

over their small bones.

Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Pune's Water Warrior

When it comes to saving water, I cannot but share this wonderful home video created by a young 13 year old boy from Pune. He was 11 when he made this movie.

I've written many articles on him. Am reproducing one here.

12 year old Viraj Gapchoop is an achiever of the rare kind. A student, a film maker, a water prodigy and an avid photographer, Viraj may seem to wear too many hats for one so young, but his passion for each is endearing.

This young water warrior who recently entered the India Book of Records 2011 edition, has made a film on saving water through simple methods that he admits he learned at home. The filmed that was screened at the Vasundhara International Film Festival in Pune in February 2010 epitomised the young lad bathing while standing in a round plastic tub and recycling the collected water by watering plants, flushing toilets or even swabbing the home.

His passion for the subject began when as a young boy living near the banks of the gentle Pavana river he witnessed the steady desecration of the river.

“People were dumping garbage, washing clothes on its banks and all this affected him. As a young boy of three or four, he would ask his grandfather why people spoiled the river” recalls his mother Manasi fondly.

To add to his exposure, the Gapchoops are a conscious lot, saving water on a day to day basis, that is more like a way of life to them. “We turn off the tap while working in the kitchen, and recycle water from washing and bathing for many uses. Viraj grew up doing all this and also realising that this was important to save water” said his father Dinesh.

The idea of a movie came to him when he thought of spreading his message of water conservation and water recycling. He made the film at home with a handy cam and used the computer to edit it and add the audio. The film, about 12 minutes long is narrated by himself in a simple way avoiding jargons, spreading the message of water conservation.

Since he made the movie, Viraj has been honoured at several forums and continues to be reckoned with as a child prodigy and young innovator.

Simultaneously this young lad also invented a simple system that helps reduce overflows from overhead water tanks. Christened the Semi Automatic Water Pump Controller, the device can be made from scrap almost free of cost by anyone who is willing to implement the concept. 

Viraj’s invention, with its striking simplicity and cost effectiveness has found many takers. He does not sell the device and the proceeds of the contributions he receives from people who implement the concept have been given to his school Jnana Prabodhini Navnagar Vidyalaya, located at Nigdi that needed funds for social and construction activity.

In the past few months, Viraj’s water saving device has fetched the school over Rs 1.55 lacs, all as voluntary contributions!

What he developed as a Science project for his school is now also under process for registration under the Intellectual Property Rights Act.

Watch PART 1  and PART 2 of Viraj's movie and do remember to show it to the children at home and in your neighbourhood!

Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Week 4 - Water – A precious resource

My childhood friend Rekha who has been diligently following and supporting the Joy of Giving sent me this post by email, since she has taken a short sabbatical from blogging and social networking. 

Her post is reminiscent of her childhood days' struggle for water in Kerala, a land where the rain pours to kingdom come for almost 5 months in a year... Over to Rekha:


Saving water is something after my own heart. Living in rainy Kerala does not necessarily mean that’s plenty of water all around. “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” holds true for West Kochi, the place I lived. Drinking or potable water was a perennial problem and I remember lugging pots from as far as the next road during extreme shortages, which were very common.

It was a unifying fact though, never mind if you lived in a huge house or a shanty, you queued up like the others for water. Thankfully, these did not go to the extremes, and since we had a bore well and a well, we did have some kind of water, even if it was not pure.

The worst shortage I came across was in Madras in 2001 when we had gone to my sister-in-law’s place. They lived in posh T. Nagar, home to all the Kollywood stars, but they had absolutely no water. And the water truck came at the earthly hour of around three or four in the morning. Water was stored in every available space, including little tumblers and mugs. And a lot of water was reused and recycled… and that’s when it hit home hard… Use water judiciously or face the consequences.

My husband too has had his share of experiences with water shortage. Palakkad has fierce summers unlike the rest of Kerala, and mostly the deep well in their village home would dry up and they too had to lug water from other places. Thankfully, they have a bore well now and the well never dries up thanks to the bountiful monsoon.

How do I try and save water? I only have bucket baths… and try not to keep the tap running on in full force while washing the vessels. I use a mug of water whenever I remember, for brushing my teeth and use minimum water while washing clothes by hand. I use the washing machine only if there is a full load, and so on and so forth.

I try to do my little bit… and will continue to do so… for who can imagine a life without water?

Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Water Saving Tips

When my son plucked the fourth card out of the pack for the Joy of Giving, I thought I would write a couple of posts about saving water. Bathing in a bucket of water is one way of saving water. There are others.

Tips for Conserving Water 

• Verify your home is leak free. Repair dripping taps by replacing washers. It took a plumber 4 days and a few hundred phone calls to respond to my complaint of leaking taps. Such is the attitude to a 'dripping' tap in our country! May be it is time we started learning how to do some basic plumbing ourselves
• Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Use water efficient flushes, plumbing fixtures having sensors, low flow faucet aerators which require minimum water. Box cisterns are best used to save water and the flush knob can be pushed back as soon as the WC is clear to save water
• Turn off water while brushing teeth. Very important and to be taught especially to children
• For shaving, use mug rather than using running water. Have seen many men do it and its a good initiative to save water
• Close faucets while soaping and rinsing clothes/utensils. Teaching maids and then monitoring them is the toughest task
• Keep overflow valve in the over head tanks so as not to waste water 
• Use waste water to swab, flush, clean terraces. Easier said than done, but if we are committed to saving water we can do it
• Don’t use running water for releasing ice from tray/washing vegetables. My aunt who as an Air Force officer's wife lived across the country, even in areas of severe water shortage, follows this practice. She takes a bowl of water when she starts chopping, and dips all vegetables in the bowl rather than wash them under running water
• Don’t use extra detergent to wash clothes. Sometimes we think more detergent means better washed clothes. It is not so. In fact, too much detergent doesn't get rinsed off clothes easily especially if they are machine washed which typically have fixed rinse cycles. It is better to use detergent frugally
• Don’t use running water while hand-washing clothes. Again, teaching maids and monitoring them is the toughest part
• Operate automatic washing machine when it is fully loaded 
• Don’t use shower/big bath tubs in bathrooms. Taking a bucket bath is hygienic. My children get showers as a treat, every other Saturday, not as a matter of right 
• Water left over in water bottles can be used to water plants instead of being thrown away
• Don't wash cars. Wiping them clean works just as well. In fact wet wiping the car frequently is known to rob the paint off its shine. Dry wipe 3 times and wet wipe 3 times a week
• Don't water plants with running water. I use all the 'left over' water (from bottles, buckets etc) to water my plants
• Use sprinklers in gardens. Sprinklers save water and distribute water evenly over larger surfaces 
• Don’t over-water your lawns. A good rain eliminates the need watering for more than a week
• Water lawns during early morning hours when the temperature and wind speeds are the lowest. This reduces losses from evaporation
• Please remember water never gets "old". Don't throw good water down the drain. Use it

Joy of Giving - Card 4 - Week 4

This week we have a card that is so easy to follow, any one can do it.

But first, a prelude:

Long ago, taking bath under a shower was considered a luxury. Not only because showers were considered an indulgence but because showers were considered an indulgence due to the amount of water they consumed. A bucket of water was considered enough for a clean, thorough and hygienic bath.

Somehow things changed. Homes with more advanced forms of plumbing became popular. Suddenly it was not enough to just take bath - we needed "rain shower heads" in our bathrooms to replicate the rain that poured naturally... Needless to say, water consumption increased and slowly but steadily through our patterns of water use we started depleting our natural water sources.

Did you know that a 10 minute shower can exhaust 120 liters of water from your tank (@ 12 liters per minute)? With an average of four members in a family, that is almost 500 liters of water everyday; 15000 liters of water a month; 1,82,500 liters per annum.

How can we cut down this massive water consumption without compromising on hygiene? (If I ask my kids they will gladly say "Bathe twice a week!")

Use a bucket. That's the card for this week:

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